Thrips in November?!

 I am glad to report I am much MUCH more cheerful today.  A good night's sleep helped, but just not being alone is the best thing.  I do get so very lonely here.  Rosie's first words on waking this morning:  Glan-ma, light and cat!

The camera on my phone has a delay and every photo I took this morning so far has ended up wrong!

Ah well, she's gorgeous anyway!

The flood waters seem to be receding now, but I imagine the Cresselly Arms is going to be a huge clean-up job and of course, they can't get flood insurance.  A tree branch took the window out . . .

Photo from Wales online yesterday . . . 

Abergwili football pitch . . .

There is a house out of sight on the far side of the flood.  Think it was sold in a dry period and done up for an Air B&B . . .  This is Llechryd bridge, back in 2018, from a You Tube video, but it was the same yesterday . . . 

This is the lovely house, and the photo was taken 20 years ago, thanks to Geograph who take photo for every grid square.

And here is an imponderable for you - how do cutlery draws get dirty when you are putting away only clean cutlery?

Also, Thrips (tiny black thunder flies) hatching in November?  Not before, not here . . . but in Tam's bedroom, we have a hatching!  Jen and vacuum cleaner heading upstairs now . . .

Flooding

 

Whilst we had a lot of rain these past couple of days (tail end of Hurricane Melissa I believe), and our River Wye is high and folk downstream on flood alert (Bredwardine and Hereford getting it), it was our old home, Carmarthenshire, which got hit really badly again.  These are photos I took in 2020 I think.  It was every bit as bad yesterday, if not worse.  Danny struggled to get home with Emma, in the dark.  Personally, I would have taken note of the Yellow Weather warning and cancelled bookings . . .

This was looking across the River Towy as you approach Carmarthen on the by-pass.  The line of the river is normally 15 feet wide at most, towards the trees on the far bank.  Carmarthen flooded again yesterday, as the river broke its banks at the bottom of Castle Hill . . .  

Above and below - as the river rises it spills across the lane at the bottom of the hill up to our old house, and can get pretty deep.  Below shows how deep it was in 2020.

Last night my friend's son had to drive through this flooded part to reach home, all the other roads to their smallholding being shut from flooding (as this should have been too).  It was after dark, and the only guidance he had of the line of the lane, was the lights in the bungalow.  He kept his revs up, but said that the water was coming up over his headlights and the car was beginning to float!  My goodness, he was lucky that it didn't cut out for then he would have been floating backwards into the river and the speed that would have been going in spate, he'd have been lucky to escape with his life.

I had a very bad night - I was still awake at 3.30 a.m. and I feel absolutely wiped out today.  I will have to force myself to do anything.  I'm glad that Tam and Rosie are arriving later for a few days.  I feel SO down in the dumps.  I cannot balance the wonderful holiday in NZ against my anxiety levels and  lowness of spirit at the moment.    Since Keith died, when I am anxious about something (as I was about the Jordan holiday) it just becomes overwhelming and I find it so hard to face the challenges ahead.  Once I get there I will be find, it's just I cannot find the positives at the moment.

But hey, it's stopped raining . . . got to get a positive into the day somehow!

Sewing is good for the soul

 I took myself by the scruff of the neck this morning, and made an appt. with the bank to renew my ISA, did some other necessary online paperwork and thus ticked a few admin items from my mental list.

This is what I am working on in the evening.  I bought this kit from the Spring Malvern Quilt Festival.  They give you a photo for guidance, but I am just using simple embroidery stitches and some of my large stash (all neatly wound on cards, and in numerical order) of DMC embroidery floss. Stitches used running stitch, backstitch, chain stitch, lazy daisy and satin stitch.

This lovely Devon Village x-stitch is so nearly finished  perhaps half an hour's sewing on it - tiny little stitches missed as there are only one or two of that colour.  The lovely cottages and church are a compilation of buildings across Dartmoor, various villages.  I found a frame in the charity shop today which should fit it.  

Also in the same Unfinished Dartmoor x-stitch folder - which I deliberately put on the kitchen table to get ACTION - is this Mary Hickmott x-stitch of Widecombe-in-the-moor - the beautiful church is known as the Cathedral of the Moor.  One of my g. (g.?) aunts was the schoolmistress there in Victorian times.   (There we go, just wasted 20 minutes trying to find her . . . back to that later.  The surname Smerdon springs to mind).

It will be a long business - just a couple of stitches in a particular colour, then change to a couple of stitches of another, and so on .  Certainly needs concentration.

Finally, I spent about 2 hours this morning doing the first "rough copy" of a pattern I had traced on greaseproof paper around  a little dress of Rosie's.  I pinned it and cut it out, and then went to sew it, only to find that the stretchy material (a 50p dress from a charity shop) didn't want to play ball and I had to ditch it totally.

This is where I got with tracing the right size (2 yrs) from a purchased pattern.  I watched two You Tube videos (how to cut out a pattern) and this said unless you were making the biggest size or not intending to re-use the pattern, then trace around the lines for the size you wanted.  This I did.  I can see from this photo I need to flatten the copies and repin flatter.  The fabric is some I got from the stash giveaway at my patchwork class last week.

We have a lovely new sewing shop in town.  It opened on Saturday.  I've not been in yet, but have looked through the window . . .

Their ethos is, I believe, recycling fabrics, sewing accoutrements, books etc, make-do-and-mend etc.  They offer dress making classes, but not at a price I can afford.  It's free on You Tube . . .

Right, back to my sewing - it has really cheered me up.

Oh how disappointing!

 On Friday afternoon I saw my GP and we discussed the best way forward for my A. Fib in the light of my ECG results.  He prescribed Dapaglifozin - a Diabetes treatment - as it was known to improve the blood flow in A. Fib patients.  The side effects . . . sugar in urine can cause UTI's and it also causes you to wee more.  Just what I needed to hear with a window seat on the outward flight . . .  I will definitely have to ask for a change of seat if poss . . .

This rainbow was SO intense that I stopped in a layby to take photos.  Ah well, you will just have to imagine the depth of colour, especially the pink.

The autumn colours were beautiful as I set off through the mountains to Tam's.  Lots of Silver Birch trees which had turned a lemon yellow and when these were set against the tawny bracken, they really stood out in the landscape.

This is Gilfach Nature Reserve.  Tam and I have done some lovely walks here.  There's one the other side of the road that I noticed yesterday and would like to do before I'm too decrepit.

I had a lovely day at Tam's.  They needed me to keep an eye on Rosie so they could get all the furniture and "stuff" away from a back wall so they could put up shelving.  The mission was a success.

Rosie is so funny - if anyone sneezes, she says "Bless you".  She had my phone at one point and I asked for it back: "No.  MINE!"  She has some more new expressions - Yep, Nope and Yepsie!!  Isn't she funny?  

Well, when she had her nap I set to and did five water-changes of washing up for Tam.  Although they have a dishwasher, it is only small and the big bowls, pans and things won't fit in, so those had been lingering for a while . . .  My halo nearly choked me after that!

I had the other half of a chicken fajita mix I'd made for a quick tea last night, and then sat down to watch the Horse of the Year Show coverage.  Whilst it was nice to see, there was too much back-stage chatting and I think anyone watching was disappointed to see just the last couple of competitors in the jumping classes, and some very glossed over showing classes too.  

This made me really laugh!

 

Tam has sent me masse of photos of Rosie - this one made me laugh SO much!!!  I needed that laugh too - am just SO low and down in the dumps again today and have achieved so little . . .

A church (St Peter's, Carmarthen) and a cake recipe

 CHOCOLATE APPLE CAKE

There you go, Anon in Wiltshire.  Enjoy!!

A few weeks back when I had a chiro appt. and didn't visit friends, I had a chance to visit St Teilo's church in Llandeilo, and St Peter's Church in Carmarthen - that was a no brainer as it's a the top of the car park where I'd parked up.  It's an interesting old church, inside what was once the Roman town and a Dodecahedron was once found 8 feet down in the churchyard, back in the early 1800s. No-one seems to know their purpose but they look like they could be for measuring portions of dry spaghetti!!!

This is the oldest building in Carmarthen, dating from the 14th C but probably with Norman roots.  It is halfway between the castle and the Priory - Llandeulyddog - which was a Celtic monastic settlement with its own small church.  This is where the Black Book of Carmarthen, an early Welsh language text, is believed to have been written.

Vicars and local squires often purloined antiquarian finds . . . this is where everyone can see it now.

St Peter's is claimed to be the biggest church in Wales, and measures 170 feet long by 50 feet wide. 

He was a favourite of Thomas Cromwell and Ann Boleyn . . . and although a Protestant, was condemned by 56 Protestant protestors, as he forbade the use of the Rosary and allowed candles at funerals and refused to convert to Catholocism.  Many of these protestors were rich merchants in the town, and had power and influence.  Besides, Bloody Mary was then on the throne . . .  St Peter's is the only church in Wales to have a Consistory Court. . . a place for administering the church's own legal system.  He was burnt at the stake in the Market Square (now Nott Square) on 30th March 1555.

This is really a rather splendid pulpit, with superb carvings.

Many of the great and good of the town are buried here . . .

Henry Lawrence, M.D. and some of his infant family (one died just a day old).  

Anne, the Lady Vaughan, who made a good age dieing at 84 years in 1672.

A side chapel.

An engraved font. 17th C?

The most famous memorial in the church is the tomb chest of Sir Rhys ap Thomas, famous for dealing the fatal blow to Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth.  The Church holds a Bosworth Day on 22nd August each year.

HERE is a link to a more thorough look into his history, which I blogged about in 2019.  We had a link to our old Carmarthenshire home, as the incumbent (Gwilym ap Sion) there went to Bosworth and was rewarded by being made Esquire to the Body of the new King, Henry VII.

I can feel your eyes glazing over now so I shall end, and get myself some breakfast.  I have a visit to the GP this afternoon to discuss my ECG results and medication . . .

Using up those apples - some toothsome recipes

 A repeat of a post from 2017, when there were more mouths about to eat what I baked!  I can recommend them all.

APPLE YEASTBREAD

1 lb (450g) ordinary plain flour

Pinch of salt

1 oz (25g) butter

4 oz (100g) caster sugar

1/2 oz (15g)fresh yeast (or 1 teaspoon of dried yeast)

1/4 pt (150ml) warm milk

1/4 pt (150 ml) warm water

12 oz (350g) cooking apples

1 level teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon golden syrup

Lightly grease and flour a deep 8 " (20cm) square cake tin.

Sift the f lour and salt into a mixing bowl.  Rub in the butter.  Stir in 1 oz (25g) sugar.  Blend the yeast with the warm milk then mix in the warm water and pour into the flour.  Mix to make a firm dough.  

Put the dough on a lightly-floured worktop and knead for 10 mins.  Cover and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size.  Knead risen dough again and roll out to an oblong 15 x 10 inches (38 x 25 cm).

Peel and roughly chop the apples and mix with remaining 3 oz (75g) sugar and cinnamon.  Sprinkle apple mixture over the dough.  Moisten edge and roll up, starting at a long edge.  Cut the roll into 9 slices.  Put the slices in the tin, cut sides up.  Cover and leave to rise to top of tin.

About 15 mins. before end of rising, turn on over, set at moderately hot, 425 deg. F. 220 deg. C, Gas Mark 7.  Bake in the centre of the preheated oven for 40 - 45 mins, or until golden brown.  Brush with the syrup and serve warm or cold.  With cream, it's a lovely dessert.

    SPICY DORSET APPLE CAKE

    4 oz butter or margarine
    4 oz caster or brown sugar
    8 oz flour, S-R or adjusted
    1 lb cooking apples
    1 1/2 teaspoons mixed spice or a mixture to your taste
    3 oz currants or sultanas (I use the mix with cranberries in)
    2 eggs

    Rub the margarine and the flour/spices together, add the sugar, peeled, cored and sliced apples,                currants and the beaten eggs.  Put the mixture in a large greased cake tin (10 inch round or 8"
    square)   and bake at gas mark 6 (425F, 220C) for 35 - 45 minutes.  The large amount of apple
    makes the cake a little fragile, so leave in the tin for 5 minutes or more before removing.
    If you do not have a large cake tin, use two smaller cake tins and reduce the cooking time
    a little.

    In the past I have arranged sliced apple around the top of the cake, but these can scorch so
    may need a covering of foil if this happens towards the end of the cooking time.  Good as
    a hot pudding too,      with cream or custard. . .

Here it is before it went in:

       And after it came out.   It is SCRUMMY!!!  

COUNTRY MINCEMEAT

Take sweet apples (though I have used windfall cookers in the past too) - even the ones which are getting a bit old and wrinkled from storage will do - peel, core and chop. Combine with dried fruit - I used an out-of-date packet which was fine, but may have been a tad drier than any I have recently bought.) Sprinkle on demerara sugar, ground cinnamon and ground cloves and add a little home-made wine if you like (I added a slosh of Crab Apple Wine). You may add some finely-chopped (and well washed) orange and/or lemon peel if you wish. I mixed mine in a bowl, but in the past I usually put straight into my earthenware jar as I am cutting the apples up, layering with the sugar, spices and dried fruit. I also usually add chopped dried apricots, but you may add whatever fruit you wish to the mix. Even without the wine, the mixture will become moist and winey and believe me it smells DIVINE. It will keep a year in the earthenware jar, which is best kept in a cool place, though having said that mine lives on the bottom shelf of a little table in the back hall. I have a recipe which calls for suet too, and is stored in jars, but this one is a lovely old-fashioned recipe and keeps very well. You will make it year after year, I promise.

BANANA APPLESAUCE CAKE

2 1/2 cups/8 oz plain flour

2 cups (I halve this to 4 oz) sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tblspn. pumpkin pie spice (ground cloves)

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup (200ml/7fl. oz.) water

1/2 cup (2 1/2 oz) vegetable shortening (I use Stork marg.)

1 cup applesauce (1/2 pint) - cooked up previously and cooled

1 cup mashed banana (2 medium bananas - a good way of using up very ripe ones)

2 eggs

1/2 cup chopped almonds (I leave these out)

3/4 cup (4 oz) raisins

Combine first 7 ingredients in a large bowl of an electric mixer and blend well.  Add water and next 3 ingredients, blend, then beat at medium speed until creamy.

Add eggs and beat 2 mins at medium speed.  Stir in nuts and raisins and pour batter into a wax paper lined 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan (or use a large loaf tin and cook for longer).

Bake at 350 deg.F for about 45 minutes.  Turn out onto a cake rack and peel off wax paper.  If wished, when you have turned right side up and whilst still warm, you can sift confectioner's (icing) sugar over the top.  I don't bother.